Talk:Riley Stavros/@comment-3541172-20110820060300/@comment-2227733-20110821004834
o I think you made good arguments, but I respectfully disagree. I really appreciate how you're not insulting and biased like almost everyone else. There are some things I'd like to say though. NOTE: the all caps and slightly angry remarks aren’t directed at you, but the Hate Dumb. I think that Zane's not really been very patient. Riley has spent his entire life thinking that there's something wrong with him, and alone, afraid, and abused; no one comes out of that completely unmarred. Riley and Zane had been dating for about two months, which almost totally resolved Riley's internal issues, which is very impressive considering what he's been through. Remember that Riley's story is one of the least happy ones in the entire series; other characters have been through some worse stuff than him, but no one's been as consistently miserable as him; every episode there's something that happens to beat him down. Riley and Zane had already agreed that Riley would be in the closet at high school prior to its start, so Idk why Zane acted like everything is so hard for him and unexpected. If he couldn't handle it then he shouldn't have agreed upon it in the first. Secondly, football is Riley's "dream." Now some arrogant and evil piece of excrement shows up and tells him that there's something wrong with him, and he's going to use it fuck up Riley's life. He should've been run over; he deserved way worse than getting tied to that flagpole. What makes it even worse is that he’s obviously nowhere near Riley’s level of ability. Anyways, the episode goes on to make it clear that it hurts Riley worse than it does Zane. We never hear Zane break up or plead over it like Riley does, whereas Riley outright says "Please don't do this to me." He even tells Zane about what Drew is doing to him, and Zane doesn't give him any sympathy. In fact, he does the opposite, Zane pressures him to come out despite what he's going through (right, 'cause it's all about you Zane). Zane even tries to force him to abruptly come out in the middle of a cookout in public even though he's not ready. Who's the selfish one here? Riley is? Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight... TDOTO is a good example of how Riley is a better and closer friend to Anya that Fiona or HJ. Not really important in the large scheme of things, except in that it shows what a great person Riley really is. Riley teasing Zane seems bad at first, but people who're actually familiar with this sort of thing (such as Boycott the Caf itself) know that it's normal for athletes/jocks to tease each other regardless of whether or not they're different, including homophobic teasing (along with homoerotic playfulness). Hell I used to do it with other guys, in fact, even the one gay guy we had on a sports team made jokingly homophobic comments to the other guys. Riley's spent his whole damn life in this environment, it would've been NATURAL for him. Zane's been on the soccer team, so Riley likely assumed that Zane would be used to it as well. I'm not saying that this totally excuses what Riley said, but it's definitely not as big of a deal as people say. And what does Riley do to fix this? He destroys the homophobic environment in the locker room, but apparently that's an unforgivable sin to hear the haters talk. Owen had it coming, and it was awesome to have Riley beat him up and humiliate him. This show has a sick-makingly double standard when it comes to violence, and Riley as a whole. What Riley did wasn't bad, because despite what popular ethics say, sometimes violence indeed solve things. Imo, if this show were realistic, then if Zane hadn't screamed at Riley and made him feel like a bad person for fighting against bullying, and Riley had given Owen a well-deserved ass-kicking yet again, then it would've solved the Owen problem. Then what Riley has to do get Zane back annoys me. If anyone can even remember back to the first part of this essay, then Zane’s already done bad things himself (Imo worse), and then he tells Riley what he’s doing is bad and wrong again even though Riley was doing his damndest to defend Zane (because god knows the school sure as Hell wouldn’t have done anything about it), and then gives him an ultimatum. Riley, in order to please the guy he adores, comes out publicly in an awesome and sweet and triumphant manner. Then Riley even says in a dreamy, happy voice, “What did I do to deserve you?” Idk where to find Zane’s reply but from what I remember he basically tells him that Riley really doesn’t deserve him, but he’s working on it. Wtf? Am I really the only one who is bothered by this? Zane’s fucked up too, and has been selfish like (arguably more so than) Riley, even though Riley’s going through worse/has been through worse, and Riley’s the one who begs and pleads for forgiveness and ultimately gives in (not compromises, gives in) to Zane. Then after all this Riley tells Zane how much he adores him and that he’s too good for him, and Zane just insults him and acts holier than thou? This is (part of) exactly the reason why I know that the HBICs of Electric Boogaloo have it in for him. On to Purple Pills. Okay, this episode deals with Riley’s DREAM CAREER AS A PROFESSIONAL ATHLETE. Riley is understandably scared that him being gay will hurt his future, considering the way people like Drew, Derek, Owen, and his frikkin parents have acted about it, in addition to the things he researched about on the internet about gay athletes, and what Zane said to him about the first openly gay politician being murdered, and apparently even this doesn’t make him worthy of people’s pity or empathy. In the end though, he decides to risk the chance of being assassinated/shunned and comes out to the scout, and plans to become a major role model and one the earliest openly gay football players in history. He even kisses Zane in the middle of the hallway with everyone watching, and then walks off with his arm around his beloved. That jackass! How dare he do such a thing! Moving on to the Monster Moon mini, Zane’s in a gladiator costume. Riley shows up as a serial killer and tries to surprise Zane. Zane asks him why he’s wearing that and Riley replies in a sheepish voice, “I was gonna kill you…” Zane calls him selfish they were supposed to be wearing matching costume. Riley replies with a sheepish “forgive me?” Right… Because apparently forgetting what costume he’s supposed to wear, trying to fun-scare his boyfriend makes him selfish. Riley gets caught by his mom in his next episode (‘bout damn time we see them again) in a frikkin’ C Plot. This is the first time that Zane puts no pressure on him to not come out or do anything he doesn’t want (remember what he said, and what happens later). Riley says, “I don’t wanna pretend anymore.” But just because he wants it doesn’t mean it’s going to be easy or happy. I’m sick of being a Muggle, but that doesn’t mean God is gonna send me to Hogwarts and turn me into a wizard just because I want Him to really badly. Then, in his next episode, he gets kicked in the face again by being demoted to B Plot status. His mom’s being a horrible bitch to him, and won’t even look at him until he says that he’ll meet with this girl (and later finds out that he’s been duped into an unwanted date). Zane himself even remarked on how great is that his mom is actually talking to Riley (“In complete sentences?!”) again. Blah blah blah, we all know what happens on the fake date. Zane looks at Riley’s phone, sees a text from a girl, and assumes the worst, even though Riley’s shown no signs of being unfaithful, and if anything has been more adoring and loyal to Zane than Zane’s been to him. Riley goes to Zane ask what’s wrong and Zane demands to know whether he’s been cheating on him and storms off without letting Riley explain himself. Then the next day, Zane basically gets annoyed at Riley not coming out to his parents even though he already said that Riley doesn’t have to come out until he’s ready (so much for that). Zane asserts that since Riley met his (perfect) parents, then he shouldn’t have to be a “dirty secret” (again, is really all about you dude?). Riley wants him to come with him to his birthday to make him feel more welcome (which was a bad move, admittedly, and it should’ve been Anya instead, but we all know how the HBICs wanna keep this two in their own separate universe anyway). It’s disastrous, and I really can’t blame Zane for his impatience this time, though once again this mistake is a genuine MISTAKE (unlike with a lot of characters), but again this is apparently enough to earn Riley blind, irrational rage and hatred. So, in an incredibly badly “written,” ass backwards, out of character scene which never really happened anyways, Riley breaks up with Zane because he doesn’t want him to feel uncomfortable anymore, even though it’s true that Riley’s OWN FRIKKIN’ HOMOPHOBIC PARENTS barely have any kind of effect on Zane, so he could totally be more patient since it’s only for like two more months at most and Riley’s the one who has to live with them anyways (notice how everything is Riley’s fault). Notice that Riley’s barely keeping himself together and Argy seems like a person who’s actually about to burst into tears rather than just a convincing actor, which is a lot more than I can say for certain other actors, though this still isn’t enough to earn him even ounce of recognition or respect. I will admit though that this is really the first time that we get any real indication that Zane possibly loves Riley as much as Riley does him. That’s it for specific episodes. Let me say something about Riley’s love for his parents. First off, THESE ARE HIS ********* PARENTS, which apparently doesn’t mean spit to a lot of high schoolers and younger kids, but I’ll try and explain it for the people who don’t get why his (and a lot of other people’s) parents would actually be special to him. These are the people who procreated him, raised him, fed him, clothed him, took care of and loved him for all eighteen years of his life. Even though they’re largely/mostly responsible for why he had issues with self-hatred and fear and loneliness, he still cares about them. (OH NO! HE ACTUALLY LOVES HIS PARENTS! THAT BASTARD! …Wait isn’t loving one’s parents supposed to be a good thing?) I know that unfortunately, familial relationships don’t mean much to a lot of people, but to close and/or traditional families, family means everything. I feel the need to mention once again that his mother has been even looked at him, let alone spoken complete sentences to him for the past couple of months, and there’s the possibility that his father is even worse than his mom, and that whole nightmare could continue on from BOTH parents (who he has to live with) for the next couple of MONTHS, and therefore effects him infinitely more than it ever possibly could with Zane, who it really doesn’t affect at all. Let me add in that Riley actually loves his parents and wants to make them happy, which, yes indeed is a good thing. Obviously, Zane’s been blessed with easygoing parents, but it really shouldn’t be that hard to imagine why coming out to one’s parents would so painful hard, especially given that he seems to be familiar with violence and crimes committed against gay people. Coming out to complete strangers can be easy due to the fact that they’re complete strangers, and therefore who gives a shit what they think? Compare this to one’s family, whom one is stuck with for the rest of their life. Given everything that Zane has done to fuck up, but it’s always Riley who has to go begging and pleading for forgiveness from him then I can understand why Riley would be so upset over Zane not being understanding with him, and yet Riley still put the blame mostly on himself. That’s why I know that Riley shouldn’t have broken up with Zane, and why he shouldn’t have come out to his parents. Rather it should’ve been Zane who’d have to suck it up, get over it and be more selfless, patient and understanding; it's particularly offensive when Riley's STILL portrayed as being wrong and the brain dead heaters are still being well, hate-filled, narrow-minded, mean and insulting to him.